Now, if you’d like to, you can change the type of search to microfilm available for interlibrary loan only and… well… let’s just say that going from six pages of results to a single 1948 directory can be disappointing.

But fear not… it’s still possible to review some of these at 3 a.m. in your bunny slippers. Because some of these been digitized in partnership with Ancestry. Anyone with a Kansas Driver’s License can log in for free through the KHS Ancestry portal, and those of us who subscribe can find them through the “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995” collection at Ancestry.

You can do the usual searches in that collection, or you can browse the collection on the right hand side using dropdown menus for State, City or County, and Year.

For Johnson County, for example, there are two farm directories that have been digitized: for 1929 and for 1950. In the 1929 directory, you can find everything from a list of officials of the county farm bureau to information about diseases of chickens. And there are some great charts about the cost of agricultural production for that time.

For genealogical purposes, what you get is demographic information: which farmers in Aubry Township owned their land and which ones were renters? Who were the dairy farmers, and who were the cattle farmers, and exactly what kind of livestock did they raise? There’s even a separate list of rabbit breeders for the county.

You’ll get in-depth information about the rural folks in 10 Johnson County townships: Aubry; Gardner; Lexington; McCamish; Mission; Monticello; Olathe; Oxford; Shawnee; and Spring Hill. And it’s information you may not be able to find anywhere else.

Farm directories for our rural folks (and, of course, not just from Kansas).

2 Comments

Poor Kansas! 🙂 The KS directories don’t include as much information as the Stephenson County (IL) Prairie Farmer’s Directory. We get, in addition to all you mentioned, the acreage, when they settled the area, and…..the birth name of the wife and the names of all the children! https://archive.org/details/prairiefarmersdi01inchic/page/42

Archives

We use cookies on this website to ensure that the site will work properly on your web browser together with improving the site’s performance.
If you click "Yes, I agree," you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Yes, I agreePrivacy Policy